The really lost tooth

Carden has been complaining of a loose tooth for a week or two, but this morning he was sure it was not long for this world. Tonight he rushed in saying he had lost it--really lost it. He didn't know when it had come out or where. (I suspect he swallowed it with that last handful of popcorn.) So tonight, under his pillow sits, not a tooth, but a letter: "Dear tooth fairy, I lost a tooth but I lost it. Please please find it so I can have some money. Carden" The two drawings at the bottom are him: On the left he's holding a quarter and smiling; on the right no quarter and no smile. Looks like he doesn't remember that last time the tooth fairy coughed up two whole dollars for his tooth--miraculous since the first one fell out on a Sunday night when Tyler had cleaned me out of cash on his way to Japan. And once again tonight, it's Sunday night, Tyler is flying over the Pacific, and I'm sure I'm out of dollar bills. Please, please Tooth Fairy, forget the tooth--just find me a dollar!

Just not his day

It's not easy to be Seth. Seth has twice the drive of his older brother Carden, but unfortunately only half the size and weight. Last week he ran right into Carden's baseball bat in his excitement to catch the ball--naturally we were playing with the aluminum bat instead of the foam one. Yesterday he was tearing through the house, rounded the couch and slid, not into first base, but the base of Charlotte's high chair. The doctor gave him in five stitches and three lollipops. Now he has a matched set of scars. Two years ago we watched the doc staple the back of his head together. Let's hope he doesn't inherit the receeding hairline genes, or he'll have a lot of explaining to do.

No split ends

Being six weeks overdue for a haircut can make you desperate. By the time I finally got in to the stylist, I was ready for drastic measures. Seven inches later I walked out, feeling the strange sensation of wind on my neck. Carden didn't recognize me when I went to pick him up from school, and Charlotte gave me a very funny look when I got home.

Wardrobe battles

Every mother of a girl anticipates the inevitable wardrobe battles with her daughter--I just didn't expect them to start at under a year. Tyler laughs at how much I love to play dolly with Charlotte, dressing her up in frilly things and snapping up color-coordinated hairbows and clips.

Today I put a new dress on Charlotte. It's fluffy and puffy and I love the polka dots. It is, however, extremely difficult to crawl in fluff and puff. Your knees move, but the fabric under them does not. Charlotte was mightily displeased with her polka dot prison. She sat scowling on the floor, pulling up the skirt and trying to throw it away from her.

Seth

Seth doesn't seem to get as much blog time, not being in the position of oldest child where everything is new or baby where everything is also new. Seth is also sadly in a phase where he whines a lot, much to our consternation, especially since he previously was a pretty chipper, try-anything-once kind of kid. So here's an update on Seth.

One of the lovely perks of having Tyler work from home is that I can dash out to pick up or drop off someone and leave the rest at home with him. Last week I told Seth I had to go pick up Carden from school. He wanted to come, but I said he had to stay. I dashed out the front door and took the Honda, which was parked in the driveway. Carden and I got back home and started working on homework and other projects. About 40 minutes later I realized I hadn't seen Seth in a while. I stepped outside and yelled for him, ran up to the playroom, checked in the basement. No Seth. I went into the garage and sure enough, he had climbed into the van, determined to come along to pick up his brother. He had buckled himself into his seat belt (which he can't undo), and fallen asleep. Lucky us. A few times he's buckled himself in before we were ready to leave and we've found him screaming in the car, afraid he'd been forgotten. I unbuckled his seat belt and opened the car door so he could finish his nap. Tyler woke him up and brought him inside, where he climbed up on this chair in the kitchen and fell asleep again. Guess it's been a tough week!

Charlotte's first tooth

Finally! Charlotte's first bottom tooth popped through last week. Although now that she's armed and eager to defend herself, I'm not sure why we were so anxious for her little razors to arrive. She's also crawling everywhere and pulling up on things. She's tried letting go and standing a few times but no success there. Looks like she's eager to try keeping up with all the other members of the family. With the tentative spring weather, we've been taking her outside to watch us do yard work. She likes to sit in the stroller or her swing under the apple trees and be part of the fun. She's 11 months old today!

Mother's Day

Carden announced that for Mother's Day, "I'm going to wake up early and give you my Mother's Day present I made at school."

Me: "What about my breakfast in bed?"

Carden: "Oh yeah. Umm, I can bring you a piece of bread."

Me: "Anything else?"

Carden: "Some water?"

Good thing Dad intervened, with scones, eggs, yogurt with fresh blueberries, and juice, or I would have been the lucky recipient of bread and water. Of course, considering many of the day-t0-day job descriptions of a mom, maybe that's a more appropriate Mother's Day menu...